PokingFun

Surely the teams fighting for their lives will be under as much pressure as us to get a result. I'd have my money on us every time in those games.

He told me he prefers the Chapel End where fans are articulate and polite .....

I still find it a little surprising that people suggest we are winning yet not playing well. If that is the case then we have had a minor miracle since Feb where we have played 17 games, won 12, drawn 3 and lost two, scoring 32 and conceding 14. That is exceptionally good form and can only be achieved by playing well the majority of the time. At times, all teams need to dig in to win a game (Man U v Everton is a good example recently and Man U do it all the time). My summary is that when we say we "did not play well" we actually mean that we didn't hammer our respective opponents and I think this attitude is borne out of us being the big spenders in the division. Its interesting that Man U are widely considered as the best team in the country and have scored around two goals a game and conceded just under 1 goal per game this season so if you looks at Saints, the suggestion is that we are on the whole playing well in our respective division with our recent record (and had the added disadvantage of a lot of games in a short space of time plus injuries to key men to overcome). Defensively we are very well set up (vital for success otherwise you end up like P'boro), we are strong in midfield, hence being able to overcome injuries, and up front we can score goals from many sources as has been evidenced recently. I suggest the reason we sometimes perceive that we are not playing well is down to the primary objective of being tough to beat first of all and then using superior ability and fitness to overcome other teams. Winning games but playing badly is not correct, we are winning games consistently while oaccasionally playing badly and having flat spots in odd games. Very different indeed.

If its not then you will simply have to congratulate one of the other two as they will have had to win all their remaining games by my reckoning. In fact, if we get 87, only H'field can beat us with a 100% record and with their run in thats not likely.

Why, don't you think P'boro and H'field are capable of losing / drawing under pressure as well?

Fair play buddy, were still in a fantastic position and all at the club are doing a great job. Keep the faith.

If we win our home games Roger, I'm 90% certain we will go up in 2nd otherwise it will likely mean our two rivals have won every game left, which is a big ask under pressure.

Behave yourself, we won seven out of eight before tonight using similar team / tactics etc and I'm sure enough of those teams play the way Rochdale did against us. Why all of a sudden should 'people' have reservations about Adkins because we lost a game? According to the stats posted earlier we dominated the game but did not convert tonight and KD chucked one in so that is hardly the fault of a system / tactics really.

Hes not a happy clapper, just someone that realises we remain in an exceptionally strong position and that losing an away game to a play off contender is not a disaster.

Unlucky to draw at Charlton surely .... we were 1-0 up with four mins left?! No-one has a right to tell Adkins what tactics to play given his impressive record this season. Its one loss away to a side on a very good run and we are still 2nd with a game in hand. We will lose the odd game away to play off contenders you know.

Its nothing to do with games in hand, its about winning 4 or 5 from last 7 and we will be safe. I still cannot see us not doing that given that has been our form since NA came in.

Forte sounds pretty dangerous tonight.

I can just see Sad Old Git with Alpine Saint on his shirt .... defo not other way around as we know Alps cannot make games ;-)

Did you avoid a ticket tax by promoting the games? ;-)

I think the 2 games in hand thing is a non-issue really. For me its a case of win 5 out of 8 home / away and we should be promoted as I cannot see Huddersfield getting more than 12 points from their remaining 6 games given their run-in. Even if they achieve 13 points which would be exceptional, then we still have a huge goal difference advantage over them. Win 6 games and we are definitely there. Really pleasing to see that so far we are showing no signs of bottling it at all.

Agree completely, based on points NA has achieved over the games he has had so far our start effectively handicapped us by between 8-10 points which is huge even though it was at the start of the season. If he can steer us to 2nd place then he will have done an absolutely fantastic job in my opinion. I see no reason to worry yet as we look tough to beat home and away and are very capable of scoring plenty of goals.

What is your reasoning behind this statement?

For me, so long as we win our home games then we should be fine as I'm very confident of picking up 2-3 wins away against the opposition we have to play. Its going to be tight though regardless so hold onto your hats boys and girls!!

Statistics are hardly useless given many very big corporate organisations pay people a lot of money to make future predictions based upon historical trends. I would take a projection based on past performance as an objective measure every time over the nonsensical ramblings that many post on here.

I think the REALISTIC best that P'boro and H'field can achieve will be 83 and 85 respectively given their run in and the fact that they also have to play each other. This means we would only need 20 points due to our superior goal difference and I think with our fixtures that is well achievable. Its distinctly possible that we could do it with less than 20 as the games the others have left are by no means easy. I would take our run-in and the extra games we have over the other two any day of the week. I fully expect us to get 21-22 points and finish second.

Man Yoo's chances of sinning PL are much higher with Rooney and Vidic in the team as well interestingly enough.

But surely the stats are f***in idiotic and should be ignored shouldn't they?!

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Trouble is, passion alone does not win football matches. We have arguably won more points recently by being well organised and tough to beat, partiularly as a significant number of the games have been away from home. LB gives us a good option up front as he will work hard and allow us to defend from the front so that hopefully our more gifted players can get on the ball. If we want someone that has the ability to unlock teams then you start with Guly as he has that ability (along with OXO and Lallana who have somewhat different attributes) but unfortunately is not as consistent and can be frustrating at times but equally has had games where he has been excellent. I think its a bit horses for courses. Away from home I think Barney suits more as we have to be well organised and able to withstand any initial home team enthusiasm so a really strong work ethic is the order of the day. At home, I believe we can afford to be a bit more creative which means LB is probably not the best option albeit he is still a decent one. I don't know exact stats on this but I believe RL / LB do have a decent record starting games together so its a decent option in its own right. Guess it all boils down to the weaknesses of the opposition and how best we can exploit them. I think NA is good at spotting those things but also changing when it doesn't work. I'm just pleased we now seem to have a side that has flexibility of options when everyone is fit. Anyway, I'm off out for a beer as Bristol Rovers have just scored, fingers crossed they can do us a favour!! COYR!!

RIP fellow Saints fan and condolences to the OP and the chap's family. hope we win promotion to put a smile on his grandson's face. All the best.